Gardeners' Notes:

Zone 9b, coastal Otago, New Zealand. This plant's classification is a giant mess! I currently have THREE obviously different plants described as parryi. One I class as parryi truncata, being sea-greenish with red-black spines and quite a wide leaf, with no marginal spines.

Another is stone-blue, smaller-leaved with more marginal leaf spines, which are blood red and dainty. It is a smaller plant altogether and I would not put it in the same species as the first. It is very hardy, water-resistant and at around 17cm across is beginning to offset.

The third (!) sold to me as parryi is similar in form to the latter blue plant, though the same pale sea green as the first, with a 'fancier' leaf, many marginal spines and delicate scalloping of the leaf margins.... read more It is also a fussier plant, which I am rehabilitating from being underpotted and dessicated. Its currently leaking brown clear sap and sporting brown leaf patches. I will get round to posting pics of all three.

The first two plants are very beautiful and seem quite hardy, the blue plant having survived neglect, wet winters and overpotting for a few years now, without so much as a leaf spot. Im not so hopeful about the third variety- it looks sulky and difficult. If someone were to sort this taxonomic mess out we would all know what we were likely to receive through the mail next time we order one!

I am having a very hard time finding any information on how this plant differs morphologically from all the other A parryi varieties... not sure anyone really knows. This is from high elevation in the US southwest, which makes it perhaps genetically slight different, and perhaps a bit more cold hardy.. but only discussions of it describe it as having a 'wider' leaf than some other forms.. even though most other forms seem to have a very wide leaf. A parryi truncata, the only other form I a have a lot of familiarity with has an even wider leaf form than this one. IN fact, if I had to characterize this plant, I'd say it had relatively narrow leaves. Perhaps the Mexican A parryi parryi forms are more narrow leaved... Striking grey plant with perhaps somewhat greyer leaves than the other ... read moreforms? Very sharp black terminal spines with marginal black teeth down at least part of the leaf.